"What"s going to happen at chapel, I wonder, that we are all ordered to be there?" commented Muriel Harding that evening, at the usual nightly confab.
"Special notices to be read, very likely," surmised Ronny. "From now on, we"ll begin to hear them. It"s not very long until Commencement, children."
"Don"t speak of it." Jerry held up a protesting hand. "I think I ought to have at least four more years of education. I"m not half educated. I don"t want to leave Hamilton this June, knowing I"m not coming back to it."
This in a measure was the att.i.tude the others were gradually taking.
With the growth of the new dormitory project came the earnest longing "to stay just one more year" and see its furtherance. On the other hand there were the home folks to be considered. Marjorie in particular felt that her captain would not care to spare her away from home another year. Nor would she ask that permission.
When on Friday morning row upon row of more or less lovely girl faces, each with its own particular charm of youth, lined the large auditorium of the chapel, no pair of bright eyes missed the significance of Doctor Matthews" presence and that of the entire Board. Something out of the ordinary was about to take place.
Morning exercises over, Doctor Matthews proceeded to address the scrupulously attentive a.s.semblage.
"It may not be known to many students present," he said, "that the college has very little data concerning its n.o.ble founder, Brooke Hamilton. We know that he planned this monument to learning on a broad and magnificent scale. We know that he superintended the erection of the buildings. We know that he spent his life near it, at Hamilton Arms; that the town of Hamilton, Hamilton Highway, West Hamilton-all these bear his honored name."
At the words, "Brooke Hamilton," the sharper interest of the original Nine Travelers became focussed upon the president. Something of exceptional interest to them was certain to follow the mention of that name. Nor was the pith of the doctor"s discourse long in coming. Their interest deepened to astonishment as they heard him presently take up the subject of the maxims of Hamilton"s founder. Not only did he quote the five already framed and hung in the college buildings. He also quoted the other ten on the illuminated oblong in the founder"s study at Hamilton Arms.
Jerry was the first to catch the drift of the address. She recalled Miss Susanna"s words in speaking of Marjorie: "I have done something for her that she"ll like." She thought she now understood. Marjorie was to receive a citation. Miss Susanna had planned the honor undoubtedly.
Jerry had not gone so far as even to dream that there might be others also ent.i.tled to this high honor. The announcement of Marjorie"s name presently confirmed her conjecture. When Leila"s, Helen"s, her own name, and, in fact, those of the others who made up Miss Susanna"s nine young friends followed Marjorie"s, Jerry began to see stars. The tenth name, Robin Page, sent an electric shock through them all. Robin had not known Miss Susanna, but the latter had certainly known her through Marjorie"s generous praise.
Asked to rise in their places, the ten seniors, thus to be honored, listened to a citation of their good deeds which made their cheeks burn and their hearts beat faster. Miss Susanna Hamilton, it appeared, had been very busy in their behalf.
President Matthews addressed each girl in turn by name, reciting the maxim to be hung in her honor and stating the place on the campus the framed tribute would occupy. Miss Susanna had shown her marked affection for Marjorie in the choice of motto she had made. Marjorie"s maxim was, "The ways of light reach upward toward eternity."
While no demonstrations of approbation were permitted in chapel, the air was full of repressed acclamation which would be presently set free outside. The turn of the tide for democracy had occurred almost four years before when the ten seniors thus elevated to distinction and a few other loyal spirits had set their faces firmly against sn.o.bbery and false principles. Now they were to experience the full sweep of the waves of approbation on which their cla.s.smates proposed to launch them.
It was a never-to-be-forgotten morning. Everyone was late to first recitations, and no one cared. Aside from the citations themselves, another glorious fact stood forth clearly. In some marvelous manner those who had received the honor of citation had been instrumental in ending the estrangement of long standing between the college and the great-niece of its reverend founder.
Coming in late that afternoon, Marjorie found a summons to Doctor Matthews" office awaiting her. The time set was three o"clock of the following afternoon. She smiled as she read the few lines penned by the doctor. She was fairly positive that he wished to question her regarding her friendship with Miss Susanna. Lucy had said at luncheon that the doctor was anxious to talk with her.
In the midst of her own happiness, Marjorie thought rather sadly of how different had been the purpose of the summons received by the Sans and Elizabeth Walbert. She wondered if the parents of many of these girls had not been cut to the heart over their utter failure. A silent song of rejoicing welled within her soul that she had nothing but good reports to present to her superior officers. She was glad her ways had been ways of light.
CHAPTER XXVII-CONCLUSION
"I can"t believe it"s true. Pinch my arm, Robin; not very hard, just enough to make me know I"m awake." It was Marjorie who made this request.
It was late in the afternoon of Commencement Day and the original Nine Travelers, Robin and Phyllis Moore, were holding a brief farewell rendezvous in Marjorie"s and Jerry"s room. Their elders and relatives who had come to Hamilton to see their own graduated were scattered about the campus. The eleven girls had claimed the privilege of one last little private session as an expression of their overflowing feelings.
Jerry, the zealous, had managed to "round them up" and order them to report at four o"clock in hers and Marjorie"s room.
"It"s true." Robin accompanied the a.s.surance with a gentle pinch. "Out of the darkness has come light. I wish we could do something for Miss Susanna to prove our grat.i.tude."
"I said that to her this morning," Marjorie returned. "She said "there is only one thing any of you could do for me,-come back to Hamilton next year. Now I know you are not free to do that. It rests with your parents. I suppose you will not be coming back to college. Well, you can at least make me a visit; singly, doubly, severally, or all at once.""
"Would you like to come back, Marjorie?" asked Phyllis. "I ask because I know how your heart has been set on furthering the dormitory project."
"Yes, I should," Marjorie answered honestly. "Now that this wonderful thing has happened, I can"t bear not to be here next year. I know that you and Barbara and the new Travelers we"ve chosen will look after things as well, if not better, than we have, but it seems hard to be so far away when the real work is going to begin. I understand why Mr.
Brooke Hamilton wished to be near the campus when the college buildings were being erected."
The "wonderful thing" to which Marjorie referred was in the nature of an announcement made at the Commencement exercises that morning. Miss Susanna Hamilton had, through the offices of President Matthews, presented to her young friend, Marjorie Dean, a clear t.i.tle to the lower block of houses west of the campus, formerly owned by her.
"Miss Dean has devoted her earnest effort to securing a site on which to erect a dormitory to be devoted to the housing of students in reduced circ.u.mstances. Such students are ent.i.tled to their time for study rather than the performance of extra work in order to pay their expenses. It is my wish that Miss Dean shall use the properties with which I now present her as a site for the dormitory of her dreams.
"Signed, "Susanna Craig Hamilton."
This last paragraph of a letter, written to Doctor Matthews by Miss Hamilton, and read out at the exercises, produced a sensation in collegiate circles. Doctor Matthews had called on Miss Hamilton, shortly before Commencement Day, asking her to attend the exercises as his honored guest. The eccentric old lady had refused flatly.
"No, I haven"t forgiven the college, altogether. You must let me alone.
I am what I am, and I don"t often change. I owed my little friend, Marjorie Dean, a reparation. I have made it in the way I thought she would like best. Personally, you are the most sensible and true gentleman I have known on a college staff since my great-uncle pa.s.sed out. If they had all been like you-but they haven"t been."
The good doctor had smiled openly at Miss Susanna"s avowed hard-heartedness. He had an idea that time would do its perfect work in closing the breach between herself and Hamilton, now that Marjorie had pointed the way.
"While we are on the subject," declared Leila, "I wonder how many of us here could come back if we wished. Don"t all speak at once. As for Irish Leila,-her time is as good here as anywhere."
"I can come back," Vera immediately said. "I have really nothing in the way of social aspirations. Father would let me come back for one year; maybe more. If I come back for five or six years, I"d be a colossus of learning if not one in stature."
"I"m not sure that I can, but I"ll coax hard at home," a.s.sured Helen.
"Miss Remson said last night that she would hold our rooms until the middle of July for any of us who knew by that time we were coming back."
"Kathie"s already here. If mother will let me, I"ll add another year of biology and work for the doctor to my collegiate budget." Lucy made this announcement with a touch of excitement.
"I can come back if I feel like it." Jerry cast an almost gloomy look at Marjorie as she spoke. She was not relishing the prospect without Marjorie as a room-mate.
"I"m not sure. It will depend on what my father says. I have been away from him the greater part of four years." This from Ronny. "Last summer he talked of spending a winter in the East. If he decides to do that he will be in New York. In that event I could probably come back to Hamilton, but,"-Ronny also looked straight at Marjorie.
"I can do as I please about coming back. I thought I might, if--"
Robin"s eyes found the same resting place as those of the others. "We want you to come back, too, Marjorie. We can"t get along without you,"
she said with friendly abruptness.
"I don"t know." A hint of distress crept into Marjorie"s brown eyes. "I have never mentioned such a thing to Captain. I"d feel selfish in doing so. She has waited patiently for me to finish college so that I may be at home with her. She has never said she wanted me to stay at home after I was graduated. I suppose she never thought I would care to come back as a P. G. If you girls are free to come back, I wish you would. You could be of so much help to the others. I"ll be able to get here two or three times during the college year, at least. Robin and I will have to come here sometime this summer to see how the work of tearing down those properties is progressing. I"ll say this. If the way should happen to clear for me to come back a P. G., that means if Captain should be willing and really anxious for me to return to Hamilton, because she knows how greatly my heart is in our enterprise, then I"ll certainly be here next fall. That is as much of a promise as I can make."
"I feel in my prophetic Celtic bones that you will come back," predicted Leila. "Your Captain is too wise not to know your secret ambitions. She will be presently driving you back to college. You may expect me in my same old room next year, and--" Leila smiled her wide, engaging smile, "I shall expect to see you, Beauty, ornamenting the campus as of old.
You may tell me then that I am a soothsayer."
THE END